Patrick Mullins on Galway chances including Annie Power colt Power Of Knowledge and Tousivator

Patrick Mullins is eagerly-anticipating a couple of choice mounts on day one at Galway on Monday.

The seven-day festival in Ballybrit kicks off with a mixed seven-race card, featuring the €110,000 Connacht Hotel Handicap for qualified riders, in which leading amateur Mullins rides Tounsivator for his father, Willie, and conditions are expected to suit the seven-year-old.

Mullins said: “It’s the most valuable amateur race probably in England, Ireland or France – it’s a huge pot and I’m very luck to get a ride in it but 20 runners around Galway on good ground, it’s a rollercoaster of a race and you need a lot of luck in running.

“I probably would have chosen Daddy Long Legs had he got in, but he’s first reserve and might go to the amateur maiden on Wednesday instead.

“But Tounsivator is bottom weight, he ran well at the track when fourth in last year’s Galway Hurdle and he won on the Flat last time out. We’re drawn in 19 but the year I won it I was drawn 21 so that’s not an impossible task. I think he has to have a big chance.

“Jody (Townend) is on Too Bossy For Us. I rode him in the race last year and we put a hood on him and it back-fired. So he has some good runs to his name, he was third over Irish Champions Weekend last year, but he is just a little bit more exposed than Tounsivator, who I thought just had a little bit more scope for improvement.” 

Mullins also rides one the most intriguing runners of the week at Galway in JP McManus-owned newcomer Power Of Knowledge, who is a Camelot colt out of the yard’s Champion Hurdle-winning mare, Annie Power.

Annie Power famously made a winning start to her life on the track at Galway – when trained by Jim Bolger – and all the signs are good that Power Of Knowledge can follow in her hoofprints.

The four-year-old has some well-known siblings and Mullins said: “He’s bigger than (brother) Davy Crockett and probably sharper looking than (half-brother) Mystical Power. They both won at Galway, as did Annie Power, so it’s very much a Galway pedigree.

"He’s been left a colt so, with his pedigree, should he be as good as Mystical Power then he could be a stallion prospect. He’s a beautiful ride and I’d be expecting him to run very well.

"It looks a hot race, Gordon (Elliott, trainer of Prime Contender) has a point-to-point winner and Jim Bolger has a placed horse from the Punchestown Festival (Teofil), but I’d be expecting my horse to be bang there as he’s doing everything right at home.

"This is competitive, though, they are big fields and no one is there just for a day out. It’s rough and ready, you definitely find out in Galway."

Mullins is confident that Witches Familiar can get the Closutton team off to a flying start in the opening novice hurdle, while Drombane should appreciate having his sights lowered for the EASYFIX Iggy Daly Handicap Hurdle.

Another handicap newcomer considered to be potentially ahead of the assessor is Sharkeyboy, who steps up to 12 furlongs for the first time in the Gra Chocolates Handicap.

"We think he's better than he's been showing," Mullins revealed of Billy Lee's mount. "We definitely think that there's more in him. He's been a little bit frustrating so far, but I wouldn't be letting him go at a price.

"The horses maybe weren’t running to their very best three or four weeks ago but they seem to have come right now. We had a treble in Wexford on Thursday and hopefully that’s a sign they’re back to form."

Patrick Mullins was talking exclusively to Sporting Life ahead of the Galway Festival.